02492cam a22003017 4500001000700000003000500007005001700012008004100029100001900070245014200089260006600231490004200297500001800339520090100357530006101258538007201319538003601391690016301427690012501590690016901715690006701884700002401951700002101975710004201996830007702038856003802115856003702153w18740NBER20180218013429.0180218s2013 mau||||fs|||| 000 0 eng d1 aAlston, Lee J.10aPayment for Environmental Servicesh[electronic resource]:bHypotheses and Evidence /cLee J. Alston, Krister Andersson, Steven M. Smith. aCambridge, Mass.bNational Bureau of Economic Researchc2013.1 aNBER working paper seriesvno. w18740 aJanuary 2013.3 aThe use of Payment for Environmental Services (PES) is not a new type of contract but they have become more in vogue because of the potential for sequestering carbon by paying to prevent deforestation and degradation of forest lands. We provide a framework utilizing transaction costs to hypothesize which services are more likely to be provided effectively. We then interpret the literature on PES programs to see the extent to which transaction costs vary as predicted across the type of service and assess the performance of PES programs. As predicted we find that transaction costs are the least for club goods like water and greatest for pure public goods like carbon reduction. Actual performance is difficult to measure and varies across the examples. More work and experimentation is needed to gain a better outlook on what elements support effective delivery of environmental services. aHardcopy version available to institutional subscribers. aSystem requirements: Adobe [Acrobat] Reader required for PDF files. aMode of access: World Wide Web. 7aQ15 - Land Ownership and Tenure • Land Reform • Land Use • Irrigation • Agriculture and Environment2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aQ54 - Climate • Natural Disasters and Their Management • Global Warming2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aQ57 - Ecological Economics: Ecosystem Services • Biodiversity Conservation • Bioeconomics • Industrial Ecology2Journal of Economic Literature class. 7aQ58 - Government Policy2Journal of Economic Literature class.1 aAndersson, Krister.1 aSmith, Steven M.2 aNational Bureau of Economic Research. 0aWorking Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research)vno. w18740.4 uhttp://www.nber.org/papers/w1874041uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.3386/w18740